‘Fly Me to the Moon’ Review: Failure to Launch

Once a staple of old Hollywood, it has been years since anyone has truly been able to recreate the screwball comedy. In the 1930s and 1940s, the subgenre became a subversive staple, allowing rom-com writers to push back against the Hays Code without getting their productions shut down. Stars like Myrna Loy, Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, and Clark Gable rose to prominence thanks to the witty double-entendre of screwball classics, including It Happened One Night and His Girl Friday. This year, there are two: the recently released Richard Linklater gem Hit Man, and the more obvious and less successful Fly Me to the Moon.

The highly fictionalized account of the first moon landing stars Channing Tatum as Cole Davis, flight director for the Apollo program. Like many elements of this story, Davis is not real–the actual flight director was married father of six Gene Kranz and canonized by Ed Harris in the 1995 film Apollo 13. Tatum’s Cole Davis is the strong, silent and single type who bears the weight of the Apollo I disaster that resulted in the deaths of three astronauts. He is entirely focused on landing astronauts on the moon, ignoring everything else, including the beautiful new head of PR, Kelly Jones (Scarlett Johansson).

Johansson’s Kelly Jones is also fictional but inspired by a collection of publicity experts who worked with the space program in the lead-up to the 1969 Apollo 11 mission. Jones is a fast-talking ad lady from New York who is very adept at reading people and knowing how to sell them what they don’t even know they want. We first meet her in a conference room in Manhattan, wearing a fake baby bump and turning the misogynist tables on a group of businessmen, convincing them she is the right one for a Ford Mustang campaign.

When mystery man Moe Berkus (Woody Harrelson) approaches Kelly about a job with NASA, it’s a challenge she can’t refuse. Before long, she and her plucky assistant (Anna Garcia) are setting up an office at Cape Kennedy and causing a stir among the engineers and astronauts. Their task is to sway public support and government funding to keep the program going. It is the height of the Cold War and the Russians are winning the Space Race. Before long, Kelly has Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins sporting Omega watches and gracing the covers of cereal boxes.

There is a lot to admire in Fly Me to the Moon. From pristine production and costume design to some really lovely cinematography, this is a glamorous, nostalgic view of the late 1960s and an idealized portrait of America on the brink of massive social change. But Rose Gilroy’s script too lightly addresses some of the reasons American enthusiasm for space was waning. By 1969, as young American men were drafted and shipped off to Vietnam and the Civil Rights Movement suffered violent setbacks, many questioned the morality of spending money on the Apollo program. Acknowledging these very real political challenges in the film is important, and yet leads to a missed opportunity. The issues are used as a backdrop to the action, rather than being addressed with any nuance by the characters who must convince everyone the moon landing is a good thing.

The bigger issue for this type of movie, though, is that there is something missing overall when a story everyone already knows so well is told through the perspective of people who never existed. The necessary antagonism between Cole and Kelly isn’t enough to sell this fictional history. When she breezes into town, he objects because she’ll be in the way and cause too many distractions. Even the audience can see he’s right. The payoff for us should be a thrill of tension each time they share the screen. It should be something we crave as much as they do. Tatum and Johansson give good performances individually, but the characters never fully work together, lacking the sizzle and heat this genre requires.

Johansson is having a lot of fun as the playful, feisty Jones. She revels in the technicolor vibrance of late-60s Florida, unleashing smart dialogue and disarming everyone she meets. Johansson has always been a talented performer with a wide range and she is well-suited to this particular time period. Kelly’s part in the story takes a weird turn, though, when Moe Berkus insists on the filming of an alternate moon landing (just in case), and she does it, despite her misgivings. Backed by 50 years of conspiracy theories, this wrinkle is a choice that provides some big laughs from a scene-stealing Jim Rash as the film director, but the real problem comes when Kelly wants to cancel the project. Berkus blackmails Kelly with a terrible secret about her past in an unnecessary complication to a story where the cagey operative holds the promise of an actual gun to her head if she refuses to comply.

For Tatum, this film is the next step in an ever-evolving career. He first rose to fame with his physicality, specifically as a dancer in the Step Up and Magic Mike franchises. To his credit, he refuses to be typecast, often trying new things and managing to surprise us with a wide range of roles from Foxcatcher to the Jump Street movies. Following the success of 2022’s The Lost City, it was only right to try to get him into more romantic comedies immediately. Tatum does an admirable job here of channeling Rock Hudson, though it is more Magnificent Obsession than Pillow Talk. It is the right acting choice, as Tatum’s Cole Davis is the brooding, serious type. But he is underserved by a script that should let him be a bit funnier to better fit the movie’s overall optimistic tone.

Fly Me to the Moon has its moments; the charming supporting cast includes Ray Romano, Donald Elise Watkins, and Noah Robbins, and it is occasionally funny and impeccably crafted. Unfortunately, all the best parts of the film are undone by a story that defies logic or reality. As a result, this flight should be grounded.

Grade: C

Sony Pictures will release Fly Me to the Moon only in theaters on July 12.